THE SNOW-BUNTING. 



Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus). 

 Plate i8. 



This truly Arctic species, whose summer home is in the circumpolar regions, 

 and which has been found breeding further north than any other bird, yet nests, 

 at high elevations, as far southwards as the Grampian Mountains in Scotland. 



Captain Fielding found a nest and eggs as near to the Pole as Grinnell Land, 

 and during summer it is widely spread over Iceland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, 

 and the barren Arctic wastes. 



On the mainland of Scotland the nest is placed high up on the mountainsides, 

 under stones or in some cleft in a rock, and is built of dry bents and moss, with a 

 lining of hair and feathers. The eggs, varying in number from four to six, are in 

 ground colour white, with a bluish tinge, spotted and marked with brownish-red 

 and black. 



Mr. J. G. Millais tells me that the song of the Snow-Bunting " is very wild 

 and sweet and has more continuance and variety than any of the other Buntings. 

 In the long summer evenings in Iceland I have heard the male Snow-Buntings 

 singing for hours. They usually sit on a high rock and sing in close vicinity to 

 the sitting female." 



In late autumn and winter large flocks of these birds arrive on our coasts, and 

 feed along the sandy beaches, among the stranded seaweed. 



Dr. Saxby writes : " Seen against a dark hillside or a lowering sky, a flock of 

 these birds presents an exceedingly beautiful appearance, and it may then be seen 

 how aptly the term ' snowflake ' has been applied to the species. I am acquainted 

 with no more pleasing combination of sight and sound than that afforded when a 

 cloud of these birds, backed by a dark grey sky, descends, as it were, in a shower 

 to the ground, to the music of their own sweet tinkling notes." 



The food of the Snow-Bunting consists principally of insects and the seeds of 

 various grasses. 



In breeding plumage the female has broad grey margins to the black feathers 

 of the head, neck, and back, which give a dull look to the bird compared to the 

 male. 



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